The aim of this study was to explore the reasons why vulnerable women refuse to take part in early interventions. In-depth interviews were conducted with 19 women who refused to take part in an evaluation of an intensive home visiting programme. A number of themes were identified including perceptions about vulnerability, misperceptions about the…

Frictional force is a source of misconceptions among students, as teachers know from daily experience. This is confirmed by many studies carried out by investigators from all over the world. Surprisingly (or perhaps not), we have found some of these misconceptions among physics school teachers and senior students of physics education courses…

The social sciences are awash with studies of varying quality. The process of getting published is supposed to sort the good from the bad and, through feedback and editing, make the good better. Ideally, that is how the system should and usually does work--but it does not always work that way. One problem with social science research is that the…

The field of early intervention has long been involved in a heated debate between proponents of behavioral teaching strategies and professionals against it. This debate has become more focused and clearly more relevant to the quality of services afforded to young children with special needs because more of these youngsters are being served in…

As a White, middle-class, English-speaking female of the type commonly found in teacher education programs, I have had to learn how to use my perspective to challenge the assumptions of the "typical" student teachers for whom I am a teacher educator. This self-study describes how I have been transformed by this learning process. Studying my…

The effectiveness of alternative programs requires an understanding of both research and practice. Essential components of alternative educational programs must include opportunities to build and foster resilience in our youth. Program elements must be reflective of the quality and standards mandated by the "No Child Left Behind Act of…

In teaching middle school students about diseases and microbes, it is surprising to discover how little they know about transmission. Misconceptions range from the idea that "giving a disease to someone" actually means "giving it away so you didn't have it anymore yourself" to a lack of understanding that tiny living things,…

This article describes surprising misconceptions revealed by a fifth-grade student during a series of interviews about probability.

In a three-part study we explored implications for enhancing the role of "Corrective Reading" ("CR") in systemic school reform relating to teacher judgments of the high levels of student academic performance required by "CR" tasks in contrast to inappropriate instructional perspectives applied by teachers regarding…

Scholars have provided numerous critical analyses of the structural causes of poverty. Unfortunately, many teachers are still led to believe, via best selling books and mainstream discourse, that behaviors, neighborhoods, and families determine educational outcomes. This "culture of poverty" theory must be disproved; educators need to be…

One important aim of social science research is to provide unbiased information that can help guide public policies. However, social science is often construed as politics by other means. Nowhere is the polarized nature of social science research more visible than in the heated debate over charter schools. In "Spin Cycle", noted political…

In "Holding Accountability to Account: How Scholarship and Experience in Other Fields Inform Exploration of Performance Incentives in Education"--a paper presented at the National Center on Performance Incentives research to policy conference in February--Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, argues educational…

The aim of this study is to reveal secondary school students' misconceptions about simple electric circuits and to define whether specific misconceptions peculiar to Turkish students exist within those identified. Data were obtained with a conceptual understanding test for simple electric circuits and semi-structured interviews. Conceptual…

Computer-assisted teaching and assessment has become a regular feature across many areas of the curriculum in higher education courses around the world in recent years. This development has resulted in the "digital divide" between disabled students and their nondisabled peers regarding their participation in computer-assisted courses. However,…

Landsman and Gorski decry what they see as the narrowing of curriculum, overemphasis on test scores, and overstandardization of curriculum in ways that undercut teaching critical thinking. They believe these trends stem from five myths that policymakers and teachers alike buy into: that curriculum enrichments are "frills"; that all…